I hope we restore society's sense of the value of life. We must restore the joy in caring for people who are dying. - Dorothy C.H. Ley,
M.D., F.R.C.P.(C), F.A.C.P., Founder and first President of the Canadian Palliative Care Foundation

No one has to suffer unbearable pain and symptoms in North America. No one. Yet tens of thousands do every day. Is it any wonder that people want to know more about
euthanasia? People do not want to experience the horrific deaths that many of their parents and grandparents experienced.

Hospice care, well practised and rooted in the philosophy of meeting individual's physical, emotional, spiritual and information needs is one answer to the cravings that
North Americans have for a dignified dying process.

Harry van Bommel wanted to know what was really happening in Canada. He sent questionnaires out to the leaders, professionals and volunteers, in the field to get their
ideas. This books summarises their views admirable. Some of the leaders who participated in national survey include:

Wolf Wolfensberger, Professor, Syracuse University Division of Special Education and Rehabilitation, Director, Training Institute for Human Service Planning and developer of
the PASSING Evaluation Tool for Human Services.

Across Canada there are people who have a terminal illness, such as the end stages of heart disease, cancer, and AIDS, who are pain free, mentally alert, able to participate
in making decisions, and talk with their families, comfortable and able to give and receive emotional and spiritual support with the people they love. These people are benefiting from palliative
care either through a formal program of care or through an informal network of support from their doctors, visiting home nursing, home care programs and their families. Unfortunately they are not
the majority.

This book addresses what needs to be available to provide excellent health care at the end of someone's life. These are not the idealistic musings of uninformed advocates
but the thoughtful considerations of front-line practitioners of end-of-life care.

Dying for Care discusses the benefits and needs for more hospice care and examines euthanasia within the greater context of what people who are dying really want. Dying for
Care will also present current information on Canadian hospice care as well as providing a public forum for the thoughts of some of Canada's palliative care and euthanasia experts.

For all those concerned for the dying, this book is an essential guide ... for all those who think about their own death, this is a comprehensive study of the comforts (and
lack of comforts) that exist today. - June Callwood